In May 1934, Charles Bedaux proposed to venture 1,200 miles over the Rocky Mountains to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. So began Bedaux=s outlandish CHAMPAGNE SAFARI. Floyd Crosby, an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, meticulously documented every stage of the trek. Bedaux had made his fortune as one of the greatest harnessers of mass labour since the Pharaohs. His connections were global, his political leanings suspect. At the age of 22, he discovered ways to make fellow employees work more efficiently, thereby increasing production. He established a consulting firm that not only analyzed and streamlined industrial tasks, but also decided the pace at which tasks would be performed. By 1925 Bedaux had a string of blue-chip industrial clients. By 1927, at the age of 40, he was so rich that he bought the Chateau de Condé, a French castle in the Loire Valley which became his principal base of operations. Bedaux=s goal was to remain rich and powerful no matter how the world shifted politically. Was Bedaux a Nazi? Historians have fiercely debated the question.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Bamako, Mali, March 1991. A popular uprising overthrows the military dictatorship and with the same blow, triumphs over the law of silence. But what is really known about the events that have afflicted this country’s history since 1968? By following the trail of one man, Falaba Issa Traoré, the film tells about the lives of thousands of other Malians. Aboard a rattletrap pick-up truck, the man of theatre, literature and cinema goes to his native village to present his latest film. This journey will give him the opportunity to go back to the source of his memories, where Captain Yoro Diakité, an old friend despite their political differences, plays a major role. The captain actively participated in the 1968 overthrow. But three years later, betrayed by his brothers-in-arms, he is shipped off to prison where he dies in 1973, in the middle of the desert in a prison built under the power he helped put in place.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Forget everything you think you know about baseball. From the early days of the Bloomer Girls to today’s Colorado Silver Bullets, BASEBALL GIRLS features something new and different about women who love the sport. You’ll see seven-year-olds learning the rules and skills of the game, and fifty-year-olds hitting home runs. This zany and affectionate feature documentary uses animation, archival stills, and live-action footage to detail the history of women’s participation in the largely male-dominated world of baseball and softball.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

The life and times of the famous portraitist Pietro Annigoni.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Who is Norman William? Norman William is Pierre Doris Maltais, born in East Angus, Quebec. It is also Piel Petjo Maltest, Dr. Man, the prince of Faucigny-Lucinge Malatesta and Sag Molinn Tiam. He is known to have a good dozen or so identities and just as many roles in international political, financial and humanitarian enterprises. Jacques Godbout found him somewhere in Europe, without papers, hounded by the press, bothered by the law, and taking care of the injuries from the twenty-eighth attempt on his life. The filmmaker searches through his story, questions his family, his friends, his protectors and his detractors, too. But as the investigation advances, the mystery becomes deeper. Who is Norman William?

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

A series of small allegorical pictures are used to illustrate the Cirque du Soleil performance, Saltimbanco, which in its own way tells about the origins of humans. Like every human being, the Cirque’s characters are born without clothing and then put on various fabrics and colours as they adapt to their environment. Soon, they will divide up into a variety of social types, all united within the Baroques family, the centre of the troupe making up the Cirque. This film is both a documentary of an extraordinary show and a fable about our civilization’s contradictions.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

The tremendous task of Quebec’s farmers, who have the job of feeding the greater population of the cities, is sensitively described over four seasons. There is nothing amusing about the unappreciated reality of those having this burdensome responsibility. Between the demands of the GATT and the organic revolution, many farmers, whether family farmers or small/medium businesses, have to do whatever it takes to survive. The beautifully painted chronicle allows us to share the toil and hopes, the trials and victories of these remarkably strong men and women. Farmers are given the all-too-rare opportunity to speak.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

A documentary made on the occasion of Cirque du Soleil’s tenth anniversary, which attempts to define in some way the “essence” of this troupe of outstanding artists, to transmit a bit of the energy that prevailed when it was formed and still motivates it today, stirring up crowds around the world. Uniting past and present, mixing archival footage and performance pictures, this is a composite portrait of Cirque du Soleil’s fascinating odyssey.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)